1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for message management for use with an entity in a communications network. The invention is especially useful for sending and receiving messages in a cost efficient manner and/or in a user friendly manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With today's communication technology there is a wide variety of formats for sending and receiving messages. For example, fax, E-mail, Internet web pages, short message services (SMS) and voice transmission. As well as this there are many different service providers, each with different tariffing rates and pricing policies. This makes it very time consuming and complex for a user to achieve the most cost efficient method for sending and receiving messages. In order to do this the user needs to obtain information about the different tariffing rates from the different service providers. This information is typically very complex, including for example, different tariffs for different times of the day and/or different destinations as well different message formats such as fax and E-mail. Even when this information is obtained it may become out of date after a relatively short time.
Once information about costs has been found, it must be compared and analysed in order to determine how a minimum cost can be achieved. Other requirements of the user must also be taken into account at this stage, for example, how urgent the message is. This is a lengthy procedure which typically involves many different combinations of factors.
When a minimum cost strategy has been worked out, it may then be found that this does not involve the type of message format that the user prefers. For example, it may be cheaper to send a particular message by fax in a certain situation, rather than by voice. However, the user may prefer to send messages only in voice format. The preferences of the person receiving the message may also be at odds with the format identified as cheapest for the particular situation. If the message is sent in a non-preferred format, it may not be dealt with as quickly as required.
Even when cost is not an important factor for the user, preferred message formats can be very important. For example a user may prefer to send all messages in voice format for speed of constructing the message and to receive messages in a text format, in order that hard copies of the messages can be kept. Users with impaired vision may also require all messages to be received in voice format. Known systems for converting between message formats such as voice, E-mail and fax can be used in these situations, although they must be managed by the user and do not automatically take account of sender's and receiver's preferences.
One problem for message management is that it involves interaction with a communications network that is a distributed, heterogeneous system. A communications network is typically heterogeneous in nature with many different service providers and as already described, there is a wide variety of formats for sending and receiving messages. One approach to managing distributed, heterogeneous systems such as this has been to use so-called agents and agent systems. Rather than having centralised control of a system, such as a communications network, a plurality of autonomous agents are able to act in their environment, say a communications network. The net effect of the agents' actions leads to control of the system and this can be especially effective when repeated interactions between agents occurs and beneficial emergent results are achieved. Each agent receives stimuli from its environment and is able to perform actions which alter its environment. An agent "decides" what actions to perform based upon its own goals which may be learned, or may be pre-specified. An agent's environment is comprised of other agents with which it is able to communicate, for example to request information or to negotiate. When this type of system becomes large scale, beneficial emergent properties may result and distributed control of a complex heterogeneous system can be achieved.
Some examples of these types of systems and the use of autonomous agents in control of complex, dynamic systems are described in the following documents:
Chapter I from Rosenschein & Zoltkin (1994) "Rules of Encounter--Designing Conventions for Automated Negotiation Among Computers" MIT Press. PA1 Paul Kearney, October 1996, "Personal Agents: A Walk on the Client Side" Sharp Laboratories of Europe Limited. Presented at Queen Mary and Westfield College Open Workshop, UK. PA1 WO9515635 describes a system of individual software agents which in combination provide communications network management. In this document, the term "Communications Network Management" is used to refer to tasks such as ensuring the supply and delivery of services and determining amounts for billing purposes. WO9515635 is not related to management services for individual users or to message management services. Agent based methods have not previously been applied to message management, for example in situations where it is desired to reduce costs and/or provide messages in user-preferred formats. PA1 (i) storing information comprising information about the communications network; PA1 (ii) storing at least one message in one of a plurality of formats, said message(s) being required to be sent using the communications network; PA1 (iii) determining, on the basis of the information, which of a plurality of formats to send the message(s) in. PA1 (i) a storage device arranged to store information that comprises information about the communications network; PA1 (ii) a second storage device arranged to store at least one message in one of a plurality of formats, said message(s) being required to be sent using the communications network; and PA1 (iii) a processor arranged to determine, on the basis of the information, which of a plurality of formats to send the message(s) in. PA1 (i) obtaining information about past message transmissions; and PA1 (ii) modifying the stored information on the basis of the past message transmission information. This provides the advantage that the method is effectively able to learn from past experience. The information such as which format was used for sending a message to a particular destination at a particular time can be taken into account when sending future messages. Similarly information about messages that have been received can be used. PA1 (i) sending a request for information to an entity in the communications network, said information being associated with that entity; PA1 (ii) receiving a reply to the request; PA1 (iii) updating the stored information according to the reply. PA1 (i) sending a request for information to a plurality of entities in the communications network, said information being associated with the entities; PA1 (ii) receiving replies to the request; PA1 (iii) updating the stored information according to the replies. PA1 (i) storing information comprising information about the communications network; PA1 (ii) storing at least one message received from the communications network in one of a plurality of formats; and PA1 (iii) determining, on the basis of the information, which of a plurality of formats to display the message(s) in.
By their very nature, agent based systems produce outcomes which are difficult to predict or anticipate as this can make them difficult to implement and maintain. It is difficult to design individual agents in such a way that interaction between many agents in use, will produce the desired results. Typically, trial and error methods are used. This is especially difficult because with repeated interactions emergent effects are produced which may not have been anticipated. Similarly, if an error in an individual agent occurs, this may go undetected for some time, because it is difficult to distinguish a natural change in the agent environment from an error. These problems are especially significant for message management systems. It is necessary to ensure that messages are not lost and they reach their destinations by the required time. Errors should be quickly detected and the system easy to maintain and operate.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for message management and particularly for use with an entity in a communications network which overcomes or at least mitigates one or more of the problems noted above.